Right. But that's what makes it a scam. :smug:
They are taking money, in the form of pre-orders, and using that money to develop a game.
You can argue that they are being "dishonest" to be the point of scamming people, but then a lot of what they are doing is simple marketing and PR.
The key point for me is first - are they developing a game? and second - will the game be released?
I think progress on the game is slow. But from what you and others have said, that seems more due to negligence and incompetence on the part of certain members of CIG. We have feature creep, and changed specifications. We have the choice of an engine that strikes me as totally unsuited for the game they want and which required and requires so much modification that they may as well have taken the smart route and just developed their own engine from the start - just like Hello Games did. We have years of work which were thrown out because of "communications issues" between CIG and third party developers.
I don't see any need to attribute to criminality what can be explained away by incompetence and bad management. It means that yes - technically the game has been in development since 2011. Six years now - yes, I DO count that year of pre-production as part of the timescale. But that six years is only equivalent to what? 2.5 or 3 years development at other firms because of everything that "went wrong"
Do I like that CIG appear to be focussing on ship sales and overhyping "new technologies" such as Render to Textures of FOIP? No. I think it a waste of time this early. But given CIGs chosen funding model, I can see why they do it. I don't like it, but I can understand it.
Having said that, there does come a time when CIG will have to put up...and with all the promises they have made, that time is 3.0. Even discounting them a couple of years of active development, CIG need to show progress towards an actual game. 3.0 needs to show some major evolution. They cannot keep tinkering with the game engine or flight model. We need actual gameplay. The engine should have been finished ages ago and the flight model one of the first things completed in Alpha.
But do I think CIG are demonstrating the degree of criminality needed for a scam? No. But I think the focus on raising money via ship sales and the like IS partially responsible for the slow development. You can argue that they are being dishonest, but a lot of that is marketing and PR and expected. Their funding model requires a degree of hype to keep the money rolling in but salesmanship isn't (necessarily) fraud or scamming. If people at CIG were taking money for a game they knew could not be completed...then yes, but I don't see any evidence of that. Incompetence and bad management for sure...but criminality?
Do I believe CIG are working hard on the game? Yes.
Do I believe it will be released? I think they'll try...but I don't know if they will.
Do I think CR is to blame for many of the issues? Yes.
